Wednesday, April 28, 2010

First I must share with you this wonderful post I found this morning done by BeachBrights , Chain Link Fence Curtains well let me just say this girl is brilliant and full of great style I mean check out the curtain rings , I love love this , not to mention this lovely covered little hidden porch ,the red brick , that window the ceiling the fan , its perfection , well I would be out there all the time , wouldn't you ? you would find me with some wine and great friends...she shares how you too can make a wonderful and durable curtain rod from stock chain link fence parts , I love to see items used for things other than their intended purpose so clever. I am definitely going to do some sort of drapery for my pergola , so that we can close it up when we want to for private intimate occasions , I imagine it being so cozy and with the breeze blowing the fabric so moody.

Even if not functional it just looks great .

I know there are no drapes here but this is so sweet , I love this photo , the sweet girl climbing on the table , sure why not , and what a great table such a charming selection , not your typical outdoor set , love that and not to mention all of those lanterns, Oh I can not wait to have our pergola completed ....

So it turns out that there is a free limit for photo storage on blogger , its 1024 MB which I have used up over the last 3 years check the photo pop up box it tells you what percent you have used up, they simply offer you more storage , it was $5.00 a year for 20 GB , that outta be just fine for me, I can handle the $5.00 charge...giving up blogging or starting over with a new blog seems like way too much work for me .

You will not believe this , but apparently I have used up all my space on blogger , that's right I have no more room to show you any images , OMG what am I to do , I was all ready to show you wonderful images of pergola's with drapes today , some really great images I tell you , well you're on your own , what am I to do ?Ok so I have officially put out 1001 posts thus far not including this one , this one is 1002 , now I must pay to purchase more space , bummer , nothing like buying something you thought you already had.... sad!!!!

Monday, April 26, 2010

There it is, I have stained the shingles and I am so over the moon with the results , its so good lookin' , now I need to work on the garden , Todd needs to work on the grass and the weed problem , we need to make a large level sand base for our summer pool , finish the pergola , and build a BBQ deck as well as build a set of stairs and small deck for the pool , that's all , no big deal at all , right! that sounds like all our weekends will be full of more DIY fun , I honestly can't get enough , I love this next half of the year .

The rain held off yesterday and I was able to make quick work of finishing this shingling job , what was a nothing box is now a feature , I love it and its not even stained yet, but hey I love shingles , I remember thinking my aunt and uncles house in New Hampshire where we would visit almost every summer which was shingled was lovely when I was a kid.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

This is how you spend a successful sunny Saturday building a pergola in your back yard , you may have to try and convince your husband that all men like to tinker and putter around building things and doing the lawn , you will then later find out that your husband is not like all those other men but he hates , yes HATES that kind of stuff , wow we are sooo different , I love to improve and then move on and improve some more , I am by all definitions a DIY girl , my husband is not a DIY guy , hence all the solo effort that has lead to the home I now share with you here on the blog and we happily live in . I would be more than happy to complete all my projects solo , its tough to work with "some" people , but the fact is there are some things I can not do alone , like lugging 20 foot pieces of 2x 8's 10 feet up in the air , that is not a solo project at all . But I thought I would give you a little tease , well because its not finished , but we are one step closer to the finish line , enjoy the sneak peek , because today it is going to rain , let's hope more progress to come next weekend.

After about 5 hours cutting , sanding and staining and staining the 20 foot beams were ready to go up... I was so afraid a beam was going to fall on my head after it slipped out out of my husband grip , thankfully no such accident occurred.

Here is the fireplace back before:

After getting the beam up on the wall and the cross beams up I was able to make a dent in the shingle installations , looks like I will be heading to Lowe's for another bundle of shingles , these will be stained grey , it will look sooo nice...what do you think?

Friday, April 23, 2010

Well I looked at this awful sight , this is a bone of contention for me just to be clear the back of the fireplace , this could be better much much better , I at one point thought stone veneer , but no , that too pricey and its not me , and since I have found the mother load of well priced shakes , Lowe's , that it what it shall be ... wouldn't it be cute with a little copper roof too , how hard is that , anyone know ?

So after making a little pile of this.......

I am left with this , a clean slate to only make better , like I say , design is in the details , I envy those who build a house from the ground up and make decisions like what to clad a house in , vinyl siding would not be my choice , I would have cement siding and shakes and loads of white trim... after all on a regular basis the siding on my bed wall creaks in rain and wind storms and has even from time to time popped right off the darn wall left to be flapping in the wind.... but it must stay ,for now!!!! but watch out siding your on my list {see the window box photo below to see the shakes I will clad this in }

I was asked to show my picket fence , I needed to paint it , which I also did today , my poor paint brush has seen its last days after that sorry job . I picked this design out of a fence job , this project is where I build my comfort level with a power miter saw , I think you can click the photo to enlarge and see the detail of the post tops , that took lots of work , it is made out of spruce and is still standing firm 7 years later ... this was one of my very first solo home improvement projects , and the first time someone asked me if my husband made it for me and I proudly said no , "I made it"

I can not imagine my house without it , ours is the only house in the neighbourhood with a picket fence , I just love little white fences , we had a lovely picket fence at our first house too , don't have any pictures of that one though .

As well someone wanted to see my window box , I did NOT make it , it is cedar and was cheap , I think its 4 feet , I did add the trim this week just to build it up a little more , I think it would be so easy to make its just a simple box with butt joints , I love the blue brackets I added, they are from Lowe's , see those grey shakes , that is what I am going to clad the fireplace jut out thingy with ...

The blossoms are in bloom , so magical.

This is my friend Lisa's tree , it's so lovely.

And this is her fence , Lisa is painting too , I have taken a break from fence painting, I am going to pace myself , this job is a real drag , but she keeps moving on , doesn't it just pop , looks lovely with that cute tree all bushy and green don't you agree?

I had to share with you these adorable animal photos , they are my daughters selection , what's cuter than small baby animals ?

I am so happy to have my mojo back to complete some small projects outside especially because the weather has been wonderful , this year we are getting a real spring and apparently according to the farmers almanac this summer will be one of hot and sunny days which is more than fine with me .

Over the last three months I have been dealing with daily headaches , at first they came late at night , I tried to ignore them , but I did go to the doc about them , got some strong pain meds but I didn't like how they made me feel . So three months later well probably 4 now the headaches are earlier in the day and I have been experiencing extreme jaw and cheekbone pain , so strange , so I have started with some testing yesterday to rule out some things and I was given a prescription for pain meds with an anti inflammatory , but I was told not to lean back or lay down when taking these and to take them on a full stomach , scary instructions , luckily all went well when I took them yesterday and for the first time in months I was pain free , what a joy... I am looking forward to another day void of pain , I do not take it for granted anymore .

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

I was able to find a beachy style light fixture for our back deck for $24.00 at Rona , I like the scale of this light much better than the before , it was cute with its gothic styling and seeded glass but it was not quite right .

Here we have the plain , ho hum square pillar that hold up the porch , we have three such pillars...nothing to write home about ...

I have always thought to paneling them , just adding some simple pieces , while at Home Depot yesterday getting stain for the fence , OH MY ACHING BACK this morning , I looked at some simple pine boards , these I was sure would be perfect to build up the posts.

What an improvement , and its not even painted yet...I am loving these little outdoor improvements , first year it was a picket fence , last year the grey shingles and window box , for this year the pergola , pillars and fireplace bumpout , I do a little each year , because for us design is in the details .

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

I have made some headway staining my fence , the color is Slate by Behr , semi transparent, lots of messy work but I love the rich look .

Well its not really a risk , I know it will look lovely , I have after all been thinking about staining my fence dark for over a year , I love that look , its the work , oh so much work , but the weather is right so why not ? painting lattice , FUN!

The pergola has been on hold as my hubby was on a trip to California , hopefully we will have some progress for you after the weekend , I am really looking forward ...

I love how this table and chair makeover has turned out , it cost me nothing more than a little paint , and it looks like a brand new table set , I would like to take it for a run sooner rather than later.